Posterized: Coen Bros

An Asian remake of the Coen Bros' debut Blood Simple hit theaters this weekend. It's called A Woman a Gun and a Noodle Shop. So let's mark the occasion of their first remake (unless I missed one?) with a look back at the peaks and valleys of the Coen Bros. They're consistently interesting filmmakers and often inspired (see Robert's 'Directors of Decade' column) but have you seen their whole filmography?

Here we go...

Blood Simple (1984) | Raising Arizona (1987) | Miller's Crossing (1990)

Barton Fink (1991) | The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) | Fargo (1996)

The Big Lebowski (1998) | O Brother Where Art Thou? (2000) |
The Man Who Wasn't There (2001)

Intolerable Cruelty (2003) | The Ladykillers (2004) | No Country For Old Men (2007)

Burn After Reading (2008) | A Serious Man (2009) | True Grit (2010)

How many have you seen? How would you rank them? It's a pretty consistently fascinating filmography, percentage wise. Well done, Joel and Ethan. Do you think Oscar was correct to focus mostly on Fargo for the 90s and No Country for the Aughts? And am I the sole person alive who wishes Holly Hunter were nominated for Best Actress for Raising Arizona in 1987 instead of Broadcast News?

I'm getting more curious about True Grit (2010) as we near its release. That Carter Burwell evening I attended helped stoke my interest and then of course there's the cast and general quality of their filmography to recommend it, trailer unseen. Perhaps I should read the novel. Have any of you read it?
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Iron Baby... and Other Babies

Have you seen this Iron Baby trailer? Kids these days. They got tech skills in diapers.



Confession: I went to see Babies last weekend while I was in Boston. My girl Amy suggested it.

Amy and me in NYC --->

We tried not to weep copiously into our popcorn bucket since we are both barren through circumstance (i.e. single or gay). Babies wasn't exactly a documentary so much as four parallel home movies without commentary other than perhaps what you're projecting on to it. I have nothing to add to the New Yorker's review which is brill. This moment David Denby singles out had us roaring:

I detected only one satirical sally: The San Francisco baby, Hattie, and her mother attend some sort of New Age group-parenting session. The mothers, raising their arms in supplication, sing a ghastly hymn to the earth, at which point Hattie heads for the door.

Boy did Hattie want out of the room! Boston audiences approved.

Our other favorite shared bit in the movie was the Japanese baby Mari's absolute hissy fit whenever she so much as looked at the pieces of a peg and hole game. So so funny... a total drama queen in training. Have any of you seen it yet? It's already one of the most successful docs ever. But maybe you'll avoid it like the plague. The Boyfriend mock screamed when the trailer played in front of a movie some months ago. Dramatically placed title cards "BABIES... ARE... COMING" will sound like a threat to the child averse.

When Amy and I exited the theater we spontaneously began quoting Holly Hunter by way of Raising Arizona.

You go right back up there and get me a toddler.
I need a baby, Hi. They got more than they can handle.
I want that baby, Hi.
[sobbing] ILOVEHIMSOMUCH

Holly Hunter is magic. The End.
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Pull Up to Dave's Bumper, Baby!

Craig here, with a look back at David Cronenberg's Crash (1996).

That's not the car horn Mr Spader!

When was the last time you got all hot under the collar as you passed a road traffic accident? When you get into a car do you rub your thighs with glee at the thought of not getting out again without a cranial fracture followed by a good seeing to? Do you expect to see a naked Holly Hunter writhing in ecstasy in the back seat on the way to collect groceries? Anyone? No? Didn’t think so. Me neither.

On the drive home from watching Crash, David Cronenberg’s 1996 “sick car smash flick” I checked that my seatbelt was securely fastened. I wanted to get home safely – if only to see what folks were saying about it. I felt as though I’d watched the artiest road safety video ever – albeit one where the actors liked pressing their bodies against the chassis just a little bit too much.

To this day it’s still banned in part of London; it can’t be shown anywhere in Westminster. It’s been thirteen years since its controversial journey to eventual theatrical release (with an 18 certificate in the UK and both R and NC-17 versions in America): do the Censors That Be still have their hazard lights flashing for Cronenberg’s auto-erotic, auto-fixated degradation derby?

In all that time I’ve not heard a case of someone deliberately ramming someone so they can then, er, ram them afterwards. Crash, even now, no more promotes down ‘n’ dirty driving to the public any more than it expresses a desire to turn us into Shivers-style sex-crazed loons, feeding on entangled celluloid entrails. Unlike what Cronenberg himself might brazenly essay in his work, technology itself – say, car parts or film projectors – can’t transmute the human brain to yearn dangerous behaviour. And it’s not like Cronenberg will direct Transformers 3 either – nobody wants to see Optimus Prime pleasuring himself.

On the flipside, in the years since Crash’s release the likes of Gone in Sixty Seconds, The Fast and the Furious and co. (movies that positively idolise life in the fast lane) have whizzed by with nary a word said on their need for speeding. The smash-ups in Crash are sudden and devastating – just like in real life. It’s just that Dave likes to provocatively orchestrate them using horny stuntmen in Jayne Mansfield drag. What’s the big deal? Maybe it’s not the auto or the erotic, but the two words together that worked censors into a frenzy.

James Spader and Deborah Kara Unger putting the car into carnal desire

Of course, it’s long been available on DVD, so anyone with a healthy interest in Cronenberg’s particular strain of subversive cinema can sit back and enjoy the melding of flesh and metal to their heart’s content: ban be damned!

In fact, Crash is perfect home viewing: Cronenberg’s deliberately even-textured, distancing camerawork suits the slick, streamlined design of a flat-screen television. What better way to absorb his mend-bending automotive allegory than at home. You just might not want to be cosied up between Rosanna Arquette and James Spader on the sofa. Or perhaps you do.

Link Code

AO Scott "spoon-fed cinema" on the infantilization of the cinema. There's no solution in this piece, just despair. But it's hard to argue with the points raised -- the box office does prove that even adults prefer movies aimed at toddlers and their "AGAIN!" refrain.
Roger Ebert is also exasperating by the dumbing down. Hey... might this have anything to do with GI Joe?
fourfour a 10 second review of GI Joe. Funny funny although I guarantee Channing has regular genitalia, having seen it.


Boy Culture Did you know that Channing Tatum was once a male stripper? Neither did I.
Edward Copeland commits heresy "a pox on all your awards shows"


Finally, if you've ever seen Mike Figgis's fascinating quartered-screen experiment Time Code (2000) you owe it to yourself to check out Nick and Tim's wordy, passionate, thorny, funny and appropriately confusing discussion for Nick's ongoing series Films of the 00s. Bonus points: Lots of love for Holly Hunter therein. Holly always carries bonus points with her.

April Showers, Home For the Holidays

april showers, evenings @ 11

One of the greatest disconnects I've ever had between consensus response to a movie and my own reaction was in 1995 when Jodie Foster's second film, Home for the Holiday debuted. It was mostly ignored by the public and the critics were out for blood. Maybe Jodie Foster had just been too successful and too lauded and it was time for the pendulum to swing back? Perhaps the undercurrent was along the lines of 'Does she have to be good at making movies in addition to acting in them?'

Even Robert Downey Jr playing Tommy got bad reviews for his performance. He was gay brother to Holly Hunter's Claudia. Though his performance is pretty out there, that needling rapid fire joking -- he's consistently pushing things too far -- is exactly in line with the movie's own sense of humor. Bonus points: the sibling chemistry between Claudia and Tommy is pretty damn credible.

If you're not familiar with the movie I urge you to rent it. You protest: But it's one of thousands of quirky dysfunctional family holiday comedies! I counter: it arrived before that ultra specific genre was wildly over saturated and it's actually very funny.

Holly's shower scene is fairly typical of the movies fast, funny and familial nature. Anne Bancroft, playing Adele the mother, is talking at Claudia but not really with her. Claudia is talking at Adele but not listening. They're on different pages and both of them don't shut up. The older woman exits the scene leaving her daughter showering in an open bathroom.

Mom, close the door behind you okay?

No? okay, no problem, I usually shower in public.
I have no pride.
I have no rights.
I'm only four years old.

I don't need to tell you that Holly Hunter is one of the funniest people in the movies and she was still in her incredible prime (roughly 1987-1998). She makes every pause and emphasis count in a line reading. So many laughs to be had in four sentences. After Claudia is done complaining about the unplanned exhibitionism, she gets down to business. She's vigorously shampooing, suds flying, until she freezes in place with a gasp. Her mischievous brother is lumbering towards the shower curtain like some comic monster.

I swear to god, Tommy, I'm naked in here and I am too old...

*FLASH*

Holly's blind recoil from the flash is the split second punchline and Foster immediately cuts to the next scene, no time to waste... more rapid fire joking to follow.
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just a photo guaranteed to brighten your morning

Home For The Holidays? Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, wherever you are, enjoy this day! I always do. I think one of the reasons I enjoy Thanksgiving is that people actually come to me --the huge feast is currently being prepared chez moi. I don't have to travel to my crazy parents house in a big oversize pink coat where I'll only end up fighting with my sibling --oh, wait that's Holly Hunter. I get us confused.

I love Jodie Foster's Home For the Holidays (1995) and I always think of it this time of year. My other favorite movie Thanksgiving is in Addams Family Values

"Eat us, we make a nice buffet..."

I had intended to type up a whole list of movie things I'm grateful for this year to honor the holiday but I don't wanna give away all my year end awards too soon... so I'm narrowing it down to three ultra specific things.

• Poppy in Happy-Go-Lucky. Being perky and cheerful isn't really my bag but I'm still trying to be more like Poppy. I love the way she turns random conversations that could be mutual crab fests into pleasant emotional outreach. Tell her something negative about someone and she'll say "bless her/him" even as she'll join you in sympathetic exasperation.
  
• The way Paul (Bill Irwin) smushes his son-in-law's face in Rachel Getting Married.
  
• How happy Sean Penn looks when he's laughing as Harvey Milk. It's not a look we see on Sean Penn so much but isn't it beautiful?
  

Your turn: Name three movie things you're grateful for this year.

P.S. regular posting will resume tomorrow after we've all digested. Be safe and take care and THANK YOU for being a loyal reader. I couldn't keep going without you.
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Small Screen Saturation

EMMY Awards live blogging tonight?

Since I've been out of town for over a month, I've been playing catch up on the crowded DVR. Watched a bunch of Project Runway. I'm rooting for Jerell and Korto at this point and so eager to see nasal nasty vintage-obsesse Kenley given the boot ... even if she does amusingly list 8 time Oscar costume design winner Edith Head among her favorite designers.

I also stared at wee descriptions of Saving Grace episodes but didn't hit play. Holly Hunter is super but I just don't really feel the show. I am never eager to watch. If your show stars lawyers, doctors, cops or detectives I feel like playing on the web instead. Maybe if I was 10 and hadn't already seen 30 years of those jobs dramatized. I'm no mathematician or census professional but I suspect doctors, lawyers, detectives and cops combined make up less than 10% of the jobs that people have in the world so why do they make up 88% of television occupations? Get some talented writers and actors involved and I am fully confident that they could make an exciting relevant series about a zookeeper or a corporate recruiter or a video game designer or even a dry cleaner you know? TRY SOMETHING DIFFERENT. I'm begging you.


I also watched a couple of the new Season 2 Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles episodes. Shirley Manson from Garbage is a new T-villain but not as angry & fun as she used to be in music videos. I'm not really sure why I watch this show. It's predictable, unoriginal, awkward. It is improving as it goes and addressing criticisms (suddenly John Connor, the eventual savior of mankind is less whiny and more decisive) which is usually a good sign for longterm health or at least the sign of a competent show runner. Still and all, it's living off the glories of two frankly incredible James Cameron movies. Those movies must have done a number on me because every time that classic familiar ominous march/drone score kicks in, my stomach tightens. I keep watching.

I'm saving Mad Men for last, following the 'go out with a bang' theory. Although Mad Men is so subtle that "bang" isn't the right word at all. I remain delightfully perplexed that so many people love it. It requires attention and thought and... well, if people are asked to do that at the movie theater they revolt and proclaim "boring" and choose something with lots of guns or Will Ferrell instead.

The Piano (1993)

A Reader Request (long time in coming --my apologies Scott!)
#9 Personal Canon: The Movies I Think About When I Think About the Movies

The menu on the 1999 DVD edition of The Piano is a hideously misleading photoshop tragedy. It’s garish, poorly composed and off putting. I won't even reprint it here to illustrate my point. It's too horrifying. I dare say I’ve never seen a poorer match between a menu and the film that follows. It’s the last less than exquisite image one will see once “play movie” is selected. If you’ve never seen the film before and you (like me) have been burdened with the unwitting purchase or rental of this particular edition, press the buttons quickly.

On to the beauty! There's so much of it...

Like mother, like daughter (Anna Paquin & Holly Hunter in The Piano)

I saw The Piano in Salt Lake City in November 1993 and I’ve never forgotten the experience. The movie held me in rapt attention from its first stirring images and Holly Hunter's high pitched but quiet delivery of one of the greatest opening monologues I'd ever heard

The voice you're hearing is not my speaking voice but my mind's voice...

I remember my best girlfriend’s hand gripping my arm during the most brutal sequence late in the movie. She was so upset she nearly bolted from her seat. I vividly remember exiting the theater after the credits rolled, both of us in a daze. We knew we’d seen something great but what exactly had we seen? Watching The Piano for the first time can feel like confronting a gorgeous but alien presence. It’s utterly transporting but also unfamiliar. Your rational mind will tell you that this shouldn’t be the case. But deeply sensual films are uncommon. What’s more, films shot through with feminine mystique, energies and point of view are arguably the rarest forms of cinema. The Piano stood womanly and defiant and far removed from other films that came before it and sadly, perhaps, has remained a foreign thing. It's still a rarity.

Jane Campion’s masterpiece, with its eerily beautiful New Zealand landscapes (before Lord of the Rings popularized the place for Hollywood) and bold femininity, felt otherworldly in 1993 but like all truly great art, it proved unusually accessible despite the challenging gauntlet it threw down. It was a major arthouse and critical success, loved by both the intelligentsia and the more middlebrow Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Before it closed its run it had won eight Oscar nominations, three statues, a sizeable box office gross for the time and a passionate enduring following.

The film begins with a curiously fuzzy image. The next cut reveals it as a POV shot: we’re looking through the fingers of Ada McGrath (Holly Hunter) who is partially covering her eyes... from what we’re not sure. The camera doesn't stay subservient to Ada's point of view but rather begins to study her, this curious mute creature. Hunter's fascinating performance, incongruously both stony and expressive, demands it...

READ THE REST...
Return and discuss if you have something to say.

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You Have Spoken!

JA from MNPP here again. They took the lead right from the beginning and never let go. They left each other a little scraped, battered, bruised, but in the end they both win, because they are all winners, except when they are losers, and then we don't ever speak of them again. Until we do.

Your choices to swallow up four hours and fifteen minutes of my weekend?

Singin' In The Rain & West Side Story

I'm not especially surprised; I think the deck was somewhat stacked in their favor. They're only two of the most beloved movies - not just musicals - of all time. How I made it through film school without having seen them is a discredit to each and every one of my professors!

So here's how the schedule for this will work: As long as Netflix doesn't go haywire today (it does that sometimes), I ought to be receiving these movies tomorrow. I'll then watch them over the weekend, and write up my thoughts on Monday and Tuesday.

That is... if I make it. If y'all did right by me! Just know, fine sirs and madams, that I have a hurricane in me! Sorry, I can't seem to stop saying that line. Anyway, I am sure each and every one of you had my best interests at heart, and voted accordingly, and my television will make it through the entire weekend sans foot-through-it.

And because this post has offered not much of real substance unto itself so far, did you know that today is both Holly Hunter's and William Hurt's birthdays? Holly's 50 and Bill's 58. It's Broadcast News Day!


Well, it would be Broadcast News Day if it weren't for that quitter Albert Brooks. He went and got himself born in July. Never a team player, that one. So I say forget him! It's Carl Reiner's birthday today; how ya like these apples, Albert:


Hmm. It's also Spike Lee's and model-turned-actress-turned-ghost Jane March's birthday ...


Seriously; whatever happened to Jane March? Color of Night didn't kill Bruce Willis' career...

Anyway, I obviously need to have some coffee or take some anti-psychotic medications now. And as for Broadcast News, everybody knows the real star of that movie was Joan Cusack anyway.

Y'all stay tuned for the Musical goodness to come, now; ya hear?
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Top 12 Actresses of the Past 25 Years

Tuesday Top Ten Twelve: for the list maker in me and the list lover in you

As you may have read below, I'm getting ready to leave on that trip which has filled me with much aging anxiety... but one good thing about aging in terms of movie-loving: you get perspective. It's impossible to look at any current actor / director / critical / movie and attendant audience response and assume that the gradations of love or hoopla in place now are permanent things ...even your own feelings change. Actors fade or grow in stature, celebrities pop up out of nowhere, films that everyone loves people forget about and the reverse happens, too.

I was wandering 'round the web today and chanced upon this cover of Life magazine celebrating the movies in 1986! So long ago... but I remember being excited to buy it in high school. This was long before those Vanity Fair Hollywood issues. Jessica Lange, Sally Field, Barbra Streisand, Goldie Hawn and Jane Fonda are listed as "Hollywood's Most Powerful Women"... that wasn't completely accurate even at the time considering that Meryl Streep and Kathleen Turner were the top superstars by anyone's sane account of mid 80s American cinema. But back on topic: these five movie careers were all about to shrink rapidly.

It got me to thinking about who I love now versus who I loved then so herewith are a dozen favorites (I couldn't restrict myself to ten) from the past twenty-five years. Not all of them are doing so well at the moment and some are now too old for lead roles in Hollywood but if you smoosh all those years together this is something approximating my dozen favorites --the women that I was seeing as I morphed from casual moviegoer to the über film fiend I am now.

Twelve Favorite Actresses (1983-2008)
In rough ascending order. Ask me tomorrow and rank would vary

If we make it a baker's dozen you'd see one of these names in the mix: Angela Bassett, Helena Bonham-Carter, Juliette Lewis, Emma Thompson, Tilda Swinton, Toni Collette, Joan Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Miranda Richardson or Christina Ricci. But this is a quarter century of love compiled... Obviously the top dozen of right now would be much different and quite a lot younger.


12 Nicole Kidman. Age: 40. First feature: BMX Bandits (1983). First time I saw her: Days of Thunder (1990)... I was not impressed. When I started to take her seriously: To Die For (1995). When I fell in love: Moulin Rouge! (2001). Her three best performances: Moulin Rouge! (2001), Birth (2004) and either The Others (2001) or To Die For (1995) depending on which day you ask me. I can't wait for: Australia (2008).

11 Annette Bening. Age: 49. First feature: The Great Outdoors (1988). First time I saw her, when I started to take her seriously, and when I fell in love: Postcards From The Edge (1990) --a one scene comic wonder. I didn't even look at Meryl Streep. This, you may have guessed, hardly ever happens. Her three best performances: The Grifters (1991), Being Julia (2004) and American Beauty (1999). I can't wait to see what kind of a spin she puts on the Roz Russell role in The Women (2008).

10 Mia Farrow Age: 63. First feature: John Paul Jones (1955). First time I saw her: Broadway Danny Rose (1984). I love her primarily due to that long and fruitful collaboration with Woody Allen. It ended poorly, sure. But not before they gave the cinema many treasures. Her three best performances in this time frame: The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), Alice (1990) and Broadway Danny Rose (1984). Also Oscar nomination worthy in Husbands and Wives (1992) and that's not even counting her earlier work. She's my choice for the #1 most egregiously Oscar snubbed actor of all time. That's right... in the entire history of Oscar's 80 years she has the most cause to bitch.


09 Uma Thurman. Age: 37. First feature: something from 1988. She made four movies in her first year. When I first saw her & fell in love lust: Dangerous Liaisons (1988)... it wasn't true love yet because I had a hard time seeing past Glenn Close & Michelle Pfeiffer at the time. Uma and I have had a rocky relationship and she may be the least purely talented of these 12 women but I shan't lie and pretend that my heart doesn't beat faster when I see her, no matter how uneven her work may be. Her three best performances: Kill Bill, Vol. 1 (2003), Henry & June (1990) and Pulp Fiction (1994). Next movie: Life Before Her Eyes, a survivor's guilt drama in which Evan Rachel Wood plays her younger self.

08 Dianne Weist. Age: 59. First feature: It's My Turn (1980), a Jill Clayburgh vehicle. First time I saw her: Footloose (1984). When I fell in love: The Purple Rose of Cairo (1995) --a brief but endearing role. Her three best performances: Bullets Over Broadway (1994), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) --were two Oscar winning performances by the same performer ever this different? -- and Parenthood (1999). She's the only performer in my lifetime that the Academy ever got it exactly right with in terms of nominations and wins for the exact right performances. Next up for Dianne: Part of the delicious stacked feminine ensemble of Synechdoche New York (2008).

07 Holly Hunter. Age: 49. First feature: The Burning (1981). First time I saw her and it wasn't just me who fell in love: Raising Arizona and Broadcast New (1987) a back to back wonder. Her three best performances: In what movie is she not amazing? Here's an old top ten. My sentimental fav' in some ways: Living out Loud (1998). Next up for Holly: more Saving Grace on television (see: related post)


06 Susan Sarandon. Age: 61. First feature: Joe (1970). First time I saw her: a midnight showing of Rocky Horror Picture Show (1977) in the 80s of course. Her three best performances in this time period: Dead Man Walking (1995), Thelma & Louise (1991) and Bull Durham (1988). True story: I carried a picture of her in my wallet for many years. Next up: Playing "Mom Racer" in Speed Racer (2008). Anxiously awaiting some filmmaker to give her a big juicy lead again. If Julie Christie, Judi Dench and Helen Mirren can get leads and Oscar nominations for their efforts, why not Sarandon?

05 Kate Winslet. Age: 32. First feature, when I first saw her and when I fell in love: all in one glorious package which happens to be Peter Jackson's best film and happens to be called Heavenly Creatures (1994). Her three best Performances: Holy Smoke (1999), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) and Sense & Sensibility (1995). Next: appearing on every ballot of my Actress Psychic Contest for either The Reader or Revolutionary Road. Seriously y'all: Calm down!

04 Kathleen Turner. Age: 53. First feature: Body Heat (1981). When I first saw her and fell hard: Romancing the Stone (1984). More Kathleen Turner loving here.


These final three ladies I talk about too much. Hell, maybe I talk about all twelve too much. Next month I'll restrain myself from frequent topics and go new places. Promise. But today, I must indulge. It's my comfort food before a stressful trip. If you haven't had enough and are curious you can click away for redundant drooling.

03 Julianne Moore Age: 47. For much Mooooore, see previous posts. Julianne has two chances to win me back this year with Savage Grace and Blindness. Otherwise, I don't know what I'll do. We've been estranged.

02 Meryl Streep Age: 58. If you love Streep --and who doesn't save Pauline Kael (RIP)? --don't doubt that there's more.

01 Michelle Pfeiffer Age: 49. If you love the one and only, there's more posts than you can probably read. Plus, the famous Pfeiffer Pforever blog-a-thon from '06.

Twenty-Five years of cinema. 1983 to 2008... who makes your list? And if you've only recent succumbed to the cinema in full, which actress from the past quarter century are you most to investigate? It's easier than it ever was to get acquainted with cinematic years gone by.
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Holly Hunter "It's Great To Play the Lead"

Tonight Susan P and I had the pleasure of listening to Holly Hunter talk for 45 minutes. Mmmm, that deliciously tart southern twang. Hunter was speaking at the Paley Center for Media in a promotional effort for her television series Saving Grace. In the Q & A after the episode screening --I've just added the series to my DVR-- the subject swung often and naturally to her rather awesome gallery of characters (Raising Arizona, Broadcast News, The Piano, thirteen, The Incredibles, Living Out Loud, The Firm, Crash, etcetera). Here's a part I thought y'all would love. She was asked about thirteen and transitioning to supporting roles.

Audience member: When you did thirteen did you actually think when that part came up that "oh crap i'm not playing the daughter anymore. They're asking me to play the mother"?

Holly Hunter: That's a great question. Yeah yeah--of course I wanted to play the part. You know, it's great to play the lead. It's really great to play the lead. I hate to go home when my scenes are over. But, yeah, the thing is it's also really exciting to be part of another character i.e. when I play the lead in some ways I feel that every other character is a facet of me. When I play a supporting character I feel that I'm a facet of the lead. You know, in that case, my daughter. So in some ways I am just an externalized person --another element of who she is. Because that's who we're talking about in this movie was the role played by Evan Rachel Wood. I mean she was --she was the persona. And we are all different kind of problems of who she is. That's exciting for me to think about drama that way.

Susan remarked to me afterwards that maybe Oscar voters should think about the annual category conundrums from that perspective. Maybe they do: it's certainly the best rationale for claiming that a co-lead is actually a supporting character that I've heard.

I can't transcribe the whole night for you but here's another thing she spoke passionately about: expressing the sexuality of her characters.

Holly Hunter: Well, it's very fulfilling to do the part [she had just been talking about Saving Grace] because, I think. You know, when I --when I had the experience of doing The Piano I thought 'wow, what a great opportunity it is to explore someone's sexuality, to explore their own sexual appetite.' And there has not been a lot of opportunities for me to have that conversation with an audience, with a character. I especially got to have that with David Cronenberg in Crash that I did several years ago. And a few other things that I've done... Living Out Loud also, I thought was --it had a certain privacy about it. It was a real inside look at a woman. But, you know, those conversations with myself, those explorations have not been as plentiful as I would have liked.

So this [Saving Grace again] allows me a great opportunity --for me to explore what this woman is like behind closed doors. I mean we can go behind closed doors and see her. I think that that --It's important you know. It's important. It's a huge part of our lives. Our sexuality is a huge part of our lives. Whether we fantasize about it or we're not getting what we want. You know, I mean... it's what people go to therapy about! [audience laughter] It's what people look at porn sites for. It's what people, you know, buy magazines for. Nine out of ten [unintelligible] are about sexuality in some way. We are obsessed with it as a culture but yet there's not a lot conversation about it, you know, on the screen. And so this is fantastic that on the small screen I get to do it.

A woman who name checks Living Out Loud, David Cronenberg, sexual expression and The Piano in one train of thought? This is the kind of woman I seriously love.

Top Actress: What Are They Up To? (1 of 2)

One of the most successful projects in Film Experience history was the half decade review of top actors and top actresses of the Aughts (2000-2005). The plan is to revisit in a few years for an official "best of decade" but in the meantime let's check in with our former top 20 this is part one #20 through #11 [part 2: #10 through #1]. How've they done since the list was published? Will they yet pull rabbits out of hats or is their magic hour over?

[FWIW: La Streep and Jake Gyllenhaal's Sister were both outside the top 20 in the fall of 2005 --remember this was only counting film work done between 2000 and mid 2005-- but have been so busy and excellent these past two years that they're easily jostling for top ten ranking when the decade is done]

20-16

Tilda Swinton
"the movies are always better for her presence"
Age: 46
Since the list was published we've seen her projected on MoMA's walls and she's swung a nifty double blade as the icy queen in The Chronicles of Narnia . The immediate future looks solid: A supporting role (possibly Oscary?) in Michael Clayton, a gig opposite Brad & Cate in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and even a possible stab at my favorite Shakespearean actress role (Lady MacBeth) in Come Like Shadows with Sean Bean. But with so many actresses coming on strong it'll be tough for her to hold position.

Angelina Jolie
"so potent is her screen presence that the audience will let her get away with murder"
Age: 32
Apart from a controlled performance in A Mighty Heart (review), the movie career is a whisper while the personal life (thanks to the press) is ever shouting. The question with her ranking is whether or not she'll start focusing on movies. She's currently filming Wanted (for the director of the Russian series Night Watch) with the ubiquitous James McAvoy and Morgan Freeman. She's also got a Clint Eastwood picture on the fast-track: The Changeling. The rest is all rumor. She gets plenty of offers. Will she ever say yes.

The Lovely Laura Linney
"what this actress sometimes lacks in surprise she more than makes up for with consistency"
Age: 43
Just two months after the actress list was finalized, Linney amazed us again in The Squid and the Whale. The films after that haven't set the cinema on fire (Breach, The Hottest State, Man of the Year) though people say she's superb in the underseen Jindabyne. Next up: The Nanny Diaries and The Savages. Judging by the trailer of the latter it looks like a master class in comic delivery with dramatic bite. We shall see. I suspect she's moving up this chart by decades end but I worry... no matter how terrific or popular any actress is, the mid 40s seem to be the trouble spot with Hollywood. That's when Pfeiffer vanished, when even Streep couldn't find great roles and when the Oscar parts stopped coming to Glenn Close.

Holly Hunter
"one of the silver screen's MVPs"
Age: 49
Speaking of worrying... Holly should have screenplays written for her, her choice of plum roles, and star perks offered without question -- especially after what she did with The Incredibles (2004) and thirteen (2003), neither of which would have come off so magically in lesser hands. Instead things have been quiet and she'll be dropping in the ranks on this list. She is turning to television right about now. Say it ain't so. She may be a tiny woman but she's big screen all the way. Damn you Hollywood! She even shares your name. Show her some love.

Maggie Cheung
"her mystique is overpowering"
Age: 43
Maggie has already announced retirement (I'm sensing a theme here. uh oh) She hasn't made a picture since the list was published. Goodbye catsuits and noodle runs *sniffle*

15-11

Uma Thurman
"tremendous (if haphazardly applied) talent"
Age: 37
Uma neared the top ten on the strength of the Kill Bill saga alone. We've since seen her "flaunt it" as Ulla in The Producers (she was game though the film was gamey) and bomb in My Super Ex-Girlfriend. Next she'll be doing some heavy dramatic lifting for In Bloom. Will she be in the Actress Oscar race? I'm hoping she barrels into the top ten but her career is so uneven she could also fall dramatically.

Frances McDormand
"paints her characters with vibrant colors and leaves you wanting more"
Age: 50
She isn't considered a bankable star but the audience always seems to fall in love with her confrontational chutzpah, don't they? In the past two years she's co-starred with Charlize Theron twice, once for an Oscar nomination (North Country) and once, well, not (Aeon Flux). She was a bundle of enjoyable rage in Friends With Money just last year. Frances' next film will offer her a co-starring role (title character even!) with Amy Adams in Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day which takes place in the 30s and is about a governess (McDormand) and the actress she works for (Adams). She'll then have a role in next year's Coen Bros picture (she's a regular and of course a Coen by marriage) Burn After Reading. George Clooney, Brad Pitt and John Malkovich are also starring.

Isabelle Huppert
"a model of sturdy excellence and bravery"
Age: 54
France's ballsiest actress is still headlining films at 54 (they revere their legendary actresses more than we do obviously) but I'm getting behind in my viewing even as she's slowing down a bit after a very busy few years. Since the list came out she's Private Property and Gabrielle have made it to US theaters. I'm guessing she slips a few to several notches in the final ranking.

Catherine Deneuve
"majestic presence: still a world great"
Age: 63
Iconic Deneuve (the oldest actress in the top 20) had a rather stunning run from 2000-2002 when US theaters showcased six of her films (though some were made in France in the late 90s) and most of them were very strong indeed. The second half of the Aughts has been the polar opposite, a Deneuve drought. She had a small role in Kings and Queen (the film is terrific) and will reunite with that film's director, Arnaud Depleschin, and most of its cast for Un conte de Noel but she'll probably be out of the top 40 by decade's end unless the pictures she is making in France make it across the sea.

Joan Allen
"needs about two seconds of screen time before inspiring hosannas and Oscar talk"
Age: 50
Joan Allen had a killer 2005 (Off the Map, Upside of Anger, and Yes all saw release) but otherwise it's been a rough decade with only the Jason Bourne films to showcase her acting gift and formidable presence. She brings it as Pamela Landy but expect a dramatic fall on the list.

The top 20 will look very different come 2010.

PART TWO -The Top Ten

For more on these ten actresses, chase the labels below
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Tues Top Ten: Funny (?) Girls

for the list maker in me and the list lover in you

Today is the birthday of both Barbra Streisand (the Funny Girl herself) and Warren Beatty's Sister (like Babs, expert with the comic timing) so in honor of them and other funny ladies of yore (I'm partial to Carole Lombard, Irene Dunne and Judy Holliday) I thought I'd do a list of female comediennes. The only trouble was that once I started to form it I realized that I don't see a lot of what passes for comedy these days (mostly because it's male driven and those comedy stars aren't always that funny to me and some I'm straight up allergic to: David Spade and Jon Heder for example) so my list would have too many glaring omissions.

So, rather than do a list of the "funniest women", which might include a few SNL or sitcom alums or even Charlies Angels if I'm generous and would include everyone who works with Christopher Guest, I thought I'd do a list of people I wish would yuk it up more often on the big screen

Actresses Who Should Do More Comedies

10 Jamie Lee Curtis. It pains me greatly that her career ended with Christmas with the Kranks and not the one for which she shoulda been Oscar nominated: Freaky Friday. She never got the credit she deserved during her acting career. She was nearly always much better than she had any right to be given the films and the roles. Such a funny and unique talent. sigh. Well we'll always have Halloween, True Lies, A Fish Called Wanda and Freaky Friday

09 Anna Faris Perhaps I should have said "actresses who should do more good comedies" --I think she's quite funny in the bit roles in which I've seen her but it's not like I'm going to sit through most of the dreck she finds herself in to see if she's as funny as she seems. Can't someone who writes intelligent comedy (f.e. the Coen Bros, David O'Russell, Christopher Guest, Woody Allen, or Alexander Payne) get her some better material?

08 Christina Ricci. Now that she has taken a step back towards recovering her screen mojo (Black Snake Moan), I'd love to see her seize a comedic role with the same intensity and enthusiasm that she did back in her Addams Family Values days. That'd be off the chain. Get it? Um... Black Snake Moan plus... oh never mind.

07 Holly Hunter. More on Holly's best work here.

06 Rachel McAdams. I sometimes get the sense that we're all holding our breath for nothing. It's clear that should she want it, huge stardom is hers. But her career is awfully quiet in proportion to the enthusiasm from moviegoers. She proved she could carry films with Red Eye and The Notebook but my favorites in her filmography are in comedic supporting roles: the caustic sister in The Family Stone and that already classic queen bee in Mean Girls ("I know right?")

05 Meryl Streep. Last year's twofer (Prairie Home Companion and The Devil Wears Prada) confirmed what Streep fanatics have known for a longtime: her legend was built from drama but her delicious silliness deserves its own act in her career.

04 Lily Tomlin. Never mind those Huckabees videos... what matters is what ends up onscreen and Tomlin always delivers. So why is it that one of the best film comediennes only gets teensy roles once every three years or so? Huckabees, All of Me, Nine to Five and Flirting With Disaster are lonely for company in the great comedies playroom

03 Joan Cusack. She's the only female Saturday Night Live alum to win an acting Oscar nomination, two of them in fact (Working Girl and In & Out), marking one of the rare times that Oscar voters have really been wise to the skill and inspiration a comedic performer has brought to the filmmaking table. I wish she'd make more movies. It was good to see her again in Friends With Money.

02 Laura Dern. She's a subtle hoot in The Year of the Dog as an overprotective suburban mom. Pair that with her brilliant film carrying work in Citizen Ruth (1996) and be forcefully reminded that there's much more to this undervalued actress than playing formidable muse for David Lynch.

01 Reese Witherspoon. She's following up her somewhat divisive Oscar-win for Walk the Line with another teary drama (Rendition) and I get the sense that that's the direction she's headed in in general. But she's a spitfire in a good comedy, elevating both Legally Blonde movies and selling the heck out of her career breakthrough in Election. I had to "Pick Flick" for the top spot.

Who would you like to see in more comedies?

Tuesday Top Ten: Holly Hunter

TTT: for the list-lover in you and the list-maker in me

Let the rest of the world have Julia Roberts, my favorite Georgian movie star is Holly Hunter and she's celebrating her 49th today. For those who've wondered why I can so regularly be found bitching about ubiquitously cast actors it's merely this: There's so many brilliant thespians out there who we hardly ever get to see. I want the wealth spread a little bit.

I shouldn't lie and say that I'll see anything with Holly in it (I have skipped a few --often because her roles are wee or she's playing third fiddle to people less talented than her pinky) but for the most part, she's a huge draw. Her best work rivals anyones. I miss her.

Ten Favorite Holly Hunter Performances

10 I'm reserving this spot (or a higher one) for...
"Wanda Halloway" in The Positively True Adventures of the Texas Cheerleader Murdering Mom (1993)
Full confession: I have never seen this all the way through but I already love the performance. I laugh every time. I am interrupted every time I try sitting through the damn thing. Hunter won the Emmy for this. 1993 was definitely the peak of her career (see also #9 and #1)

09 "Tammy Hemphill" in The Firm (1993)
I have virtually no memory of this Tom Cruise legal thriller other than that Hunter (Oscar nominated) and Gene Hackman provided the spark and charisma whilst Cruise ran away with the credit for its huge hit status.

08 "Elastigirl" in The Incredibles (2004)
I hate the modern trend of animated voice casting (only celebrities allowed!) but at least Pixar knows how to do it without offense. You won't find them casting a celebrity just for a name. They have to have a memorable character specific voice, too. The Incredibles is great fun (2004 top ten list) and Hunter grounds the super family with maternal fire, sass, confidence and her own impeccable (one might say incredible) comic timing.

07 "Helen Remington" in Crash (1996)
David Cronenberg's freaky adaptation of the J.G. Ballard novel about a community that sexualizes vehicular carnage turned off many viewers. I saw it twice in one week, marvelling at its bravely and in your face eroticism. I particularly loved Hunter's blend of self-horror and fearless compliance. Her face in the car when she exposes her breast. The way she navigates that sex scene with Rosanna Arquette's troublesome leg. Always this blend of subversive comedy with actual dramatic potency. How does she do it?

Have I mentioned that I love Holly Hunter, yet?



06 "Jane Craig" in Broadcast News (1987)
The performance that made her a star. She'll meet us 'at the place near the thing where we went that time.'

05 "Claudia Larson" in Home For the Holidays
Nobody loves this movie like I do. Well, maybe Nick.

04 "Judith Moore" in Living Out Loud (1998)
Nobody loves this movie like I do.

03 "Melina Freeland" in thirteen (2003)
I've talked about this performance several times before: 2003 top ten list and supporting actress gold medal for Holly's powerhouse work as a desperately loving single mother.


02 "Edwina 'Ed' McDunnough" in Raising Arizona (1987)
One of the best comedic performances in one of the greatest comedies ... ever. I love her work in Broadcast News but she was Oscar nominated for the wrong performance says me. It's her absolute commitment to Edwina's rigid worldview that just shoves the comedy into even funnier places. And it's already hilarious to begin with. My personal favorite moment (so many to choose from) is her instant staccato sobbing when meeting her (stolen) baby "I...love...him...so...much"

01 "Ada McGrath" in The Piano (1993)
One of those rare awards sweepers (like Mirren in The Queen) that deserved to dominate. I've been asked to write more about this movie as part of that fundraising offer so I'll do a retrospective on The Piano in April. Stay tuned.

I showed you mine. Now show me yours. Which Hunter charms you most?